DJ Fresh on four years away from prime time, the audience that grew with him, and why this moment was inevitable
Katlego Sekhu
On Wednesday morning, 1 July, DJ Fresh went live on air for the first time as part of the Kaya 959 family. For many, it was the moment they had been waiting for. For Fresh, it was something he had been thinking about carefully.
“It’s something we are doing intentionally. I had an option not to do it. I actually enjoyed the four years I was off radio. Because it afforded me time to do other things.”
Those four years away from prime time radio were not wasted. He was in studio more. He spent more time with his kids. He toured Botswana with the government on a project. He lived life at a pace that radio does not always allow. And when the right moment arrived, he recognised it.
That moment was Kaya 959.
What makes this return different is not just the station or the slot. It is the timing. The audience Fresh and Thato Mataboge are speaking to today is not the same audience they spoke to two decades ago. Fresh knows exactly who they are.
“They were teenagers, they were in first year, they were basically graduating,” he reflected. “Now they are captains of industries, they control budgets, they are parents.”
Those listeners have built businesses, raised families, taken on leadership roles, and shaped industries. They are not waiting to arrive. They have arrived.
And so has Fresh.
“I think you might as well call it the 360,” he said. “The full circle of radio from where we started to where we are right now.”
This is not nostalgia. It is not a greatest hits tour. It is a broadcaster who has evolved alongside his audience, returning at precisely the moment when the conversation between them can be its richest, its most honest, and its most meaningful. And behind every moment on air is a man who takes the work seriously.
Tune in to Kaya Breakfast with DJ Fresh, Monday to Friday, 06:00 to 09:00.
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